


a name worth remembering

by polarizingpolaris



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: BAMF Luz Noceda, Character Study, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01 Finale, Spoilers for Young Blood Old Souls, bc she went off in ybos and i want to talk about it, i type in all lowercase but i promise the story isnt hjdnhjhjgs, i will personally make that a tag, luz noceda appreciation, this will probably flop bc its not lumity but its fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26227984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polarizingpolaris/pseuds/polarizingpolaris
Summary: luz noceda has earned herself a name worth remembering.
Relationships: Emperor Belos & Luz Noceda, Emperor Belos & The Titan (The Owl House), Luz Noceda & The Titan
Comments: 15
Kudos: 229





	a name worth remembering

**Author's Note:**

> *I DON’T KNOW WHAT THIS IS I JUST THINK THAT YEAH SURE LUZ ANGERED THE EMPEROR WHEN SHE WRECKED HIS MASK BUT SHE ALSO EARNED A SHITLOAD OF HIS RESPECT OK BYE

_“I may have lost, but so have you.”_

Filled with venom and spat with poison, the human’s voice harbors the same amount of hatred and resentment as the moment it was said. Her words bounce around the Emperor’s head, playing on repeat in a mocking loop of how much it stings to be bested.

He remembers the taste of ash on his tongue, the burning in his throat from both the smoke in the air and the sudden realization that the human may have lost, but she _still_ _won_ in a way, and his gloves tingle with a hint of left over heat from the explosion.

In front of him is the portal, cracked with jagged lines (just like his mask, and he almost reaches a hand up to brush over it), but the fact of the matter is, Emperor Belos won in the end. The door is in his possession, the weak-hearted traitor has been weeded out, the Owl Lady is still cursed (at least, somewhat), and the witches’ eyes remain closed to the lies he’s selling them. Every string is still being pulled, and the Emperor is still the puppetmaster. He’s won, just like he always has.

But as he gazes upon the broken door, tracing the rough edges, he can’t help but feel that perhaps _he_ is the one who is blind.

He’s the one who adorns a mask, but the human is the one who wore it well, playing into his fear-factor and weaponizing her natural expressiveness against him. His blind spot was exploited so flawlessly and easily, and by a _human child_ no less, one who’s presence on the Isles is so new, but it’s as if she slots in perfectly, the puzzle piece nobody knew was missing. There’s an air of familiarity around her, like a long-lost memory fading back into existence, chocolate eyes oddly nostalgic.

When she gazed down on him, the island gazed with her, and when she spoke with such rage and malice, it was as if the wrath of the entire Boiling Isles was laced into her words. It wasn’t just the human who’s eyes were taking him apart; he was on display for the whole island to see. He could’ve called her name or the Boiling Isles and both would’ve answered, so entangled with one another. The island’s energy flowed through the human and seeped into her magic, encasing her in a ribbon of protection with a pattern made of glyphs.

Emperor Belos is the only being able to communicate with the island, but as he spoke to the human, it was the closet he ever felt to the titan itself.

And that’s why the human still runs free. The island cast a shadow over her, a silent warning, and Emperor Belos did _not_ want to know what the Isle’s punishment would be if he laid a hand on her.

He didn’t want to know what _her_ punishment would be if he laid a hand on the Owl Lady, either.

The cracks in his mask almost _ache_ in a way, and he can feel the brush of an icy point clipping his eye, mere _centimeters_ from maiming him. Emperor Belos has been in many duels and even more battles, but _never_ in his life has anyone grown so close to gravely injuring him. Never has anyone landed a hit on him either, but here the human is, after only a _month_ on the Boiling Isles, darting through shadows and splitting open his mask.

For the longest time, Emperor Belos has remained on a throne too tall to see the top of, watching the world beneath him and ruling with an iron fist. The witches were like ants to him, insignificant in the greater scheme only he could see.

But now, there’s a threat climbing up his throne, and the Isles starts to press on his neck as the human upends every rule, every tradition; every string gets severed and she’s the one holding the scissors.

She broke the portal, hiding glyphs in the darkness, throwing a spear through the hole in his mask, and maybe it’s his fault for underestimating her, maybe it’s his fault for taking her emotions at face-level... but even after all of that, when they locked eyes...

The human hadn’t looked smug. In fact, she only looked more defeated.

She’s an enigma, a mirror image of himself. He reaches out to connect to the human world, and in turn, she bonds with the Isles. Every move he makes, she doubles; every step he takes, she matches. Back and forth, they each slide a piece on the board forwards, chasing each other while simultaneously being chased. It’s a game of cat and mouse, and yet, when he asks himself who is the ruler and who is the peasant, he can’t find an answer.

What is he to do when the manipulator becomes the manipulated? What is he to do when the hunter becomes the hunted? When the lines between who is the predator and who is the prey becomes blurred, it’s time to be afraid.

Two times. There were two times where the human drove a knife into the chinks of his armor, two too many chinks to have in the first place. The Emperor is making more and more mistakes, more and more oversights, and every time he loses, the human does too, and every time he wins, the human wins as well.

For the first time, the victor of their battle is unclear. He may have walked away with the pieces of the portal, but it was the human who destroyed it. He may have been unscathed in the end, aside from a glowing eye and shattered mask, but it was the human’s glacier that caused it. He may have won in the end, but it feels like he’s lost.

But... that’s not right. The only reason any of this happened is because he overlooked the human, he gazed down and saw an ant where a beast was. He underestimated his opponent, and she transformed that into a weapon against him. She’s a foe capable of tricking, lying, fighting, and besting him, but all he saw was a human child with eyes hungry for revenge. For normal people, anger makes them sloppy, but it only made the human stronger.

It’s three oversights on his part... but he can still salvage one. In order to see his rival in the truest light, he must look past the stereotypes he set on her.

“The human,” Emperor Belos says, his voice carefully neutral, but the words feel wrong on his tongue, like it’s a personal insult to degrade his only equal down to her race. “What is her name?”

“Luz, sire,” Kikimora responds, every present by his feet. If she had eyebrows, he can imagine her raising one. “Didn’t you know this?”

He brushes aside her challenging tone. “I did,” he says, but he didn’t, not quite. “I meant her full name. Surely it’s not ‘Luz the Human.’”

Though perhaps it is; it’s a fitting name. He’s read many books about the human realm in many different languages, and he knows enough to translate the true meaning of her name. Light the Human. It’s an appropriate name for her. She’s the light and he’s the dark, and they clash on a level nobody else can dream of reaching.

“I haven’t heard her called anything different, sire,” Kikimora replies, and her tone is contemplative. “If she does have a last name, it remains unknown.”

He hums in acknowledgment, and his eyes trace the jagged edges of the portal door, with his signature circle with wings, a symbol of flying so far above everyone else. Though now, he is not the only one with wings.

“Find out what her last name is,” he orders, and Kikimora glances up at him, a question in her eyes. It is rare for the Emperor to show interest in anyone, much less a human child, but he doesn’t have the time nor the words to explain what is so enticing about her magic.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why, sire? She’s a human, far below you.”

“No,” he interrupts quickly, and there’s anger on his tongue, and he takes offense to the way she casually dismisses her. Surely if _he_ took notice of the human’s tenacity and power, others have as well. “Quite the opposite actually. In fact, I want you to make this your top priority.”

“Why, sire?” Kikimora questions once more, and he remembers the smoke in his lungs, resigned eyes staring back down at him from a rising platform, with the roles reversed as he stood on the floor and the human soaring far, far above him, and how when the fire from the door matched the fire in her eyes, Emperor Belos knew how it felt to lose.

“This... ’Luz the Human,’” he says, and the rives in his mask _ache_ , “has earned herself a name worth remembering.”

**Author's Note:**

> *i’m a sucker for writing a character study through the lens of another character
> 
> *yall saw luz in that last episode right????? she’s so powerful can we please talk about her 😳😳😳
> 
> *if someone interprets this as pedophilia i’m gonna scream


End file.
